Patrick Leahy
Patrick Leahy
Patrick Joseph Leahyis an American politician and the senior United States Senator from Vermont. He has been in office since 1975. A member of the Democratic Party, Leahy served as the President pro tempore of the United States Senate from December 17, 2012, to January 6, 2015. As President pro tempore, he was third in the presidential line of succession. He is the most senior senator and took office at a younger age than any other current senator. Leahy received...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth31 March 1940
CountryUnited States of America
As the elected representatives of the American people, all the people, nearly 300 million people, that we in the Senate are charged with the responsibility to examine whether to entrust their precious rights and liberties to [Supreme Court] nominee.
The appointment of the next Supreme Court justice must be made in the people's interest and in the nation's interest, not in the interest of any partisan faction.
The American people deserve a Supreme Court justice who can demonstrate that he or she will not be beholden to the president, but only to the law.
Justice [Sandra Day] O'Connor has been a guardian of the protections the Constitution provides the American people. She's come to provide balance and a check on government intrusion into our personal privacy and freedoms.
A lot of people in my state of Vermont are gun owners.
We need to consider nominations as thoroughly and carefully as the American people deserve. No one is entitled to a free pass to a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.
I want an end to this thing. But where are we? Do we know what the rules are going to be?
There's no way we can ask for a treaty that has one standard for the United States and another for the rest of the world.
While we have made some progress, much is left to be done.
The President and Vice-President have been consistent alright-consistently wrong. There is no value in that.
There have been 111 Justices in the Supreme Court of the United States. Only three have been women. If she is confirmed, Solicitor General Kagan will bring the Supreme Court to an historical high-water mark, with three women concurrently serving as Justices.
A victim is a victim is a victim. We should stop setting up standards that say we will have one standard of law enforcement for one group of victims but not for another.
Our alliances and our credibility are crucial elements of our working capital in advancing America's interests in the world, and they have been eroded over the last four years.
We've given billions of dollars to the Department of Homeland Security. I voted for those billions of dollars as a member of the Appropriations Committee. We have given as many tools as they've asked for. What in heaven's name was happening?